Wikimedia Endorses OA Petition and Next Steps

Just four days into the White House’s “We the People” Petition over 17,000 people have signed, calling on the Obama Administration to “require free access over the Internet to journal articles arising from taxpayer-funded research.”

Now, the Open Access movement benefits from today’s powerful endorsement from the Wikimedia Foundation. The foundation is a nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual content, and to providing the full content of these wiki-based projects to the public free of charge.

Dario Taraborelli, Senior Research Analyst, at Wikimedia Foundation feels like the Open Access “We the People” Petition aligns with his organizations mission for knowledge and openness. “Each month, hundreds of millions of global readers view, and have the opportunity to evaluate and contribute to Wikimedia content. Many do not have the means (nor should they be required) to pay for knowledge, including useful economic, health and scientific information when their taxes fund the research,” Taraborelli said.

Going into a long weekend, we hope that the momentum garnered this week continues. So take some time today to not only sign onto the petition, but to spread the word far and wide. Break out the computer at your BBQ party and show how easy it is to sign. Also consider a blog post, an email, a Tweet (use hashtag #openaccess), a Facebook share.

Wikimedia’s endorsement draws great attention to the sentiments of all the signatories, “We believe in open access and free licensing as fundamental forces to disseminate knowledge, support education and accelerate discovery,” Taraborelli said.

Have a happy and safe Memorial weekend, and keep those signatures coming in.